


Meanwhile Back At Mama's

by the_only_education_worth_having



Series: 12 Days of Spooktober [4]
Category: The Outsiders (1983), The Outsiders - All Media Types, The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton
Genre: Dead Parents, Dreams, Established Relationship, F/M, Heartache, Lost dreams, Song fic, Wishing, canon character death, new relationships, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:27:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27233476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_only_education_worth_having/pseuds/the_only_education_worth_having
Summary: Baby tell me what you think about this
Relationships: Darrel Curtis/Reader, darry curtis/reader
Series: 12 Days of Spooktober [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1988326
Kudos: 9





	Meanwhile Back At Mama's

**Author's Note:**

> I’m doing 12 days of Songfic’s for Halloween. Not halloween related just a challenge to write everyday
> 
> Meanwhile Back at Mamas  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or-Lam5tPHc

_Runnin round in this new truck  
Bank lets me borrow from month to month  
I’m runnin out of credit, find a little Cash on the radio  
Standing still they’re blowing past, numbers on cars goin NASCAR fast  
What I wouldn’t give for a slow down, don’t ya know?  
Cause where I come from, only the horses run  
When the day is done, we take it easy_

Darry Curtis used to hate living at home. Growing up he had been the eldest and therefore the tester child for all their parent’s rules and regulations that seemed to melt away when his younger siblings came along. He was expected to be the best in school, do the most to help out at home and still keep his job at the gas station to help keep the family afloat. He was allowed to date though he hated bringing girls back home as he had to share a room with his two younger brothers which gave him no privacy. 

Though he loved his brothers and his parents he couldn’t wait to escape. He’d worked hard for four years to keep his grades up and maintain his football career to earn him a scholarship. It wasn’t an ivy league college or anything but it was still respectable. He couldn’t wait to move out. His job at the gas station provided enough income that he could give some money to his folks and have some stashed away for moving into his dorm. 

_Meanwhile back at Mama’s  
The porch light’s on, come on in if you wanna  
Supper’s on the stove and beer’s in the fridge  
Red sun sinkin’ out low on the ridge  
Games on the tube and Daddy smokes cigarettes  
Whiskey keeps his whistle wet  
Funny the things you thought you’d never miss  
In a world gone crazy as this_

Then it happened. His parents went out one night and never came home. They were killed in a car accident by a drunk driver sending the boys into a tailspin. Overnight Darry found himself stuck with a dilemma, leave his family and go to college which would mean the boys became wards of the state or quit his dreams and keep his family together. He would like to say it was a hard decision but it wasn’t really. He’d lost his parents and he loved his brothers too much to leave them. So with a heavy heart, he took over everything.

For the first few months, they survived on some of their parent’s savings whilst Darry ran around to see to odds and ends that he hadn’t fathomed would be a problem. Getting a lawyer to oversee the transference of the house to be legally his was more of a hassle than he had anticipated. After that, he had to search around town for a job. Though his job at the gas station was good he couldn’t get any more hours and his parent’s savings wouldn’t last forever so he was forced to leave and get a job as a roofer. Though he could bring in enough money it meant he was home less. This meant that life became work and sleep and his eye was off the ball ‘parenting’ wise. Sodapop dropped out of school and took up his old gas station job against his wishes. 

He struggled. He was trying to keep Ponyboy on the straight and narrow whilst pinning down a job and corralling Sodapop into some sort of line. This was also a challenge because with Sodapop came a raft of waifs and strays who seemed to adopt their house as their own. Even with less people living there it was still jammed packed everyday meaning that the only solace Darry got usually was in his own room, formally that of his parents. And bringing girls back was also a no go. He didn’t want to promote a promiscuous lifestyle to the boys but he also didn’t want girls to think he was trying to make a new family.

_Well I found a girl and we don’t fit in here  
Talk about how hard it is to breathe here  
Even with the windows down can’t catch a southern breeze here  
One of these days gonna pack it up and leave here_

Then along came Y/N. She was a whirlwind who came into his life without warning. She was a cousin of Dally’s in town for the summer. She was a year or two younger than he but she seemed to be the maturest of the bunch and took to him like a duck to water. Whilst the boys played games in the living room she seemed to favour hanging out in the dining area/kitchen with him. She started coming over at night. Then earlier to have dinner. Then she ended up cooking dinner for the whole troop much to Darry’s delight as he hated having to cook each night. She had dropped out of school, not having much interest in it, and had been sent to stay with her aunt who was trying to convince her to go to college. Whilst in town she got a job as a waitress and when Darry had a day off the two of them would head into town to a bar or to a movie giving them both a rest from the boys. Over the course of the summer they had come to realise how much the meant to one another and when the time was approaching for her to head home Darry knew he couldn’t let her go. Without thinking he blurted out at dinner one night how she could stay with them until she found a place in town if she didn’t want to go home. 

_Oh I miss yeah a little dirt on the road, I miss corn growing in a row  
I miss being somebody everybody knows, there everybody knows everybody  
I miss those small-town routes, walkin around in muddy boots  
The sound of rain on an old tin roof  
It’s time we head on back_

She never left. The two fell into a comfortable relationship which turned intimate just after that Christmas and Darry felt a little more comfortable with his decision not to go into the big wide world. They still had the occasional itch. When Sodapop moved out and Ponyboy went to college Darry became wistful for the things he could have done if tragedy hadn’t struck him so young. But then he’d look at Y/N. Sitting in the cab of his truck singing to the radio or sitting on the front porch drinking sweet tea and he’d rethink it. 

They were happy. Though their routines were going to work, having dinner and sleeping they didn’t mind. It was mundane but it was enough.

Cause meanwhile back at Mama’s  
The for-sale signs goin up and I’m gonna  
Dump this truck and the little I got  
On a loan to own and a three-acre lot  
Put supper on the stove and beer in the fridge  
Goin’ for broke and we’re gonna be rich  
Watch the sun setting on the ridge

 _Baby tell me what you think about this_  
Me and you back at Mama’s  
Yeah me and you back at Mama’s


End file.
